Every sighted person has one eye that is dominant to a greater or lesser degree. An overwhelming dominance of one eye, however, is viewed as being harmful as it can, in extreme cases, lead to a loss of sight in the weaker eye. A tendency toward total dependency upon the dominant eye is present with such conditions as crossed-eyes, diverging eyes or eye muscle imbalances. In young children, if one eye shows an overwhelming dominance, an eye patch is placed over the dominant eye. This treatment is intended to force reliance upon the weaker eye. It has been demonstrated that this treatment will, over time, result in the strengthening of the weaker eye. Normally eye glasses are prescribed, as corrective lenses have been demonstrated to accelerate the rehabilitation of the weaker eye.
The dominance of the dominant eye is so complete, that rehabilitation of the weaker eye is retarded if the child can use his or her peripheral vision to see out of the dominant eye. For this reason the sight lines of the dominant eye must be completely blocked. In order to cover the dominant eye, an eye patch is used. In order to ensure the sight lines are completely blocked by the eye patch, the eye patch is secured across the dominant eye with adhesive. This manner of attaching the eye patch has numerous disadvantages. The adhesive invariably adheres to the child's eye brows, resulting in the child experiencing discomfort when the eye patch is removed. The eye patch can be uncomfortable, especially when the child becomes over heated during play and perspires.